* Made soap for the very first time. I was a little nervous of the unknown but all went very well. Now I'm waiting for the soap to harden ( cure ) which takes six weeks. Only five more to go until I can try it. I'm hoping to sell the odd bar or use as gifts to recoup the costs. A blog post on soap making will come soon.
* Turned the heater off for a few days as the weather was mild. I can feel Spring in the air.
* Went to the shops for milk fruit and veg on Tuesday. A few things on my list were a little dear so I bough other fruit that was cheaper like pears for 99 cent a kilo instead of apples ranging from $1.99 ( old apples ) - $5.99.
* Tipped the crumbs from the bottom of the Wheat Bix packet into the Seasoned Bread Crumbs container.
* Made another batch of Miracle Spray. This 2 litre bottle is kept in the kitchen under the sink and the one I made last week is for the laundry.
* Made a batch of Easiyo yoghurt. I then saved two tablespoons of that yoghurt to make a batch of sweetened yoghurt.
* Made some pumpkin scones using cooked pureed pumpkin from the freezer.
* Gifted a jar of relish from my stockpile and a jar of Cranberry Hootycreek biscuits for a 50th birthday party on Saturday. The gift tags were home made.
* Made six loaves of bread. Two loaves were white bread with chia seeds and four were Wholemeal Bread with extra Goodness.
* Recycled lots of bread bags from a charity bbq.
* Saved all the washing machine water for each next load. Dried the sheets on the line and the rest on clothes horses.
* Picked our first head of broccoli for the year.
* Picked more lemons from our tree.
* Picked some silverbeet to go with a meal.
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| A homemade gift |
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| Biscuits and relish for a 50th birthday gift. |
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| Soap making |
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| Getting the bread dough ready for the tins. |
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| Buckling under the weight of all the rain. |
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| Peach tree flowers. Spring is almost here. |
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| Our broccoli |
What 's on your frugal list for this week ?
Soap's lookin' good! I especially like your cookie jar gift idea and the butter fly card.
ReplyDeleteThankyou Phil. I'm just busting to try the soap. I'm going to make another batch today.
DeleteWorking full time at the moment (Casually teaching) trying my best to cook every night even when I'm running the kids to activities.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to a slower weekend and trying your strawberry jam recipe.!
Was thinking about buying two raised garden beds from Aldi to try some summer planting (Novice big time).
Baked muffins for snacks and froze then, took an apple coconut teacake into work and also baked for kindy cakestall.
Adding to stockpile for when I don't get paid in the holidays!
Please share your relish recipe, might try it next! (might be better in summer when tomatoes are yummier).
Trying to reduce the hefty electricity bill by turning lights off all the time.
Also trying to keep up with household tasks during a crazy busy time.....routine would be nice but not always possible.
I have been washing kids uniforms Friday afternoon, so and buying bread so at least I know I'm good to go for Monday!
Cathy
Cathy, I'll post the relish recipe a little closer to Summer when tomatoes are cheaper.
DeleteWhen starting a veg garden, try to grow easy things like lettuce. silverbeet and tomatoes. Then when you get the hang of it, add a new veggie each year. It's also good to start a compost bin as it's great for topping up the veggie beds.
Hi Wendy,
ReplyDeleteYour soap looks great. Did you use a fragrance?
Your broccoli looks delicious, my broccoli doesn't have a head appearing yet, hopefully very soon.
I have a 50th Birthday coming up this week for a friend of mine and I was thinking of giving her the very same present and we are also going to see the War room movie as I have vouchers for this.
My daisies are also doing the same. Do you cut yours and bring the inside or for cuttings?
This week I made: Lots of different bickies, Chocolate cakes, Popcorn Seasoned Breadcrumbs ,Cupcakes and Castor sugar.
I picked Lettuce and Capsicums and added to the compost. Saved all water and kept the heater off more this week.
I made some cards, cleaned my front door bell which is brass from handmade materials like flour, salt and vinegar.
Went for more walks this week and used the free exerciser equipment in the park. Renewed my membership to Cheapskates savings me lots of money.
When I was at my local Coles supermarket this week, I bought a few of the specials and I was chatting to the checkout lady, who was lovely. She then gave me a box of two vintage jars (S & P brand) for nothing. These were a give away if you bought two cream cheese products, which I didn't, but she said she was trying to get rid of them. So off these go to my present box to be filled with goodies.
Have a great week, xxx
Maureen
Wow, what a blessing to get those jars. I saw the ad in the catalogue but we don't buy cream cheese.
DeleteI didn't use fragrance as it was my first time making the soap. I also didn't want to add anything as my skin is itchy at the moment and I'll be using the soap for myself as well as presents.
Have you joined the Cheapskate's card making swap ?
No I haven't as yet Wendy. I have been trying to make some floral cards to see how they turn out, but I just don't think my cards are good enough. Do I have to make them all the same? I don't think I would have enough of the same things to put on each of them.
DeleteJust not sure if I should do it, I don't want to disappoint anyone if they are too basic, xxx
Maureen, I have joined the swap and I am still at the basic level.
DeleteMaggie, I didn't see your name down for the September swap. You need to go to the Sept card swap thread on the Cheapskate's forum and tell Joy you're in. It closes in a couple of days.
DeleteWendy i've always wanted to try the soap making so its definitely on my list of to do things shortly, yours look great. I also love the gift you made, i know i lot of people love home made gifts so im assuming the recipient loved it to. great idea xoxo
ReplyDeleteAll meals were made from scratch this week.
ReplyDeleteMost washing was dried on the clothes horses, but due to DH sorting out his clothes I had to use the dryer once.
Baked 2 loaves of bread and some scones.
Made 2 birthday cards, and added to the bits and pieces in the card making box.
Gratefully accepted some yarn which I will knit up into a scarf for next year, perhaps it will be a gift for someone as it is 45% alpaca and so soft.
Sounds like you've really taken on card making Maggie. Good for you xoxo
DeleteWhat a great week you, and everyone, have had, Wendy. This week I didn't feel like I'd done many frugal things but when I sat down to think about it I realised I had, and that everything adds up. This week I:
ReplyDeleteMade a cleaning spray using Morning Fresh (on sale!), vinegar and warm water. Cleaned the house with this, and some bicarb where needed.
Invited family to our place for lunch instead of going out . It was a birthday celebration so I made a lovely vanilla cake with passionfruit icing. I made soup and did a double batch to save half for us.
Made banana and berry pikelets for snacks with berries gratefully received from my cousin and an overripe banana. And made choc chip bikkies with Cadbury choc bits that were on sale recently.
Stuck to the meal plan and made all meals from scratch. This is a big one for us because we usually get take away at least once on the weekend.
Made broccoli soup with broccoli I got on sale @ five heads for $2.
Dried all washing indoors, out of the rain.
Thanks again for your blog Wendy, I really enjoy reading it.
Jo
All your food sounds yummy Jo - and very frugal too.
DeleteWow Wendy what a great week! A soap maker now, be careful now it can be addictive :)
ReplyDeleteMy frugal efforts were:
~Cook meals from scratch
~Baked chocolate cake
~Saved pre dish water for watering pot plants
~Cut washing down to just twice a week.
~Stocked up on chicken breasts that was $7.49 kilo
~Hubby arranged to have catalogues delivered to our door. Using the catalogues I shopped the specials getting things that I needed. The shampoo and conditioner I use was on special for ½ price, so I cleared the shelf.
~Three no spend days
~Stewed quandongs for dessert and froze in 2 cup servings
~Made homemade yoghurt
Have a great week!
xTania
Tania, the hardest part about soap making is waiting for it to cure.
DeleteI wish I could wash just twice a week !!! It will come
xoxo
Wendy your butterfly tags are gorgeous! What you did with the 3D effect is so pretty! I love that. I will be copying you now!
ReplyDeleteAlso you made soap! You are getting very crafty and learning a lot of new skills. Its fabulous and I know its fun. A long time ago I made soap. The best one was olive oil and goats milk (that I made) and I still have the recipe. I should start again and keep thinking about it. Going Grey and Slightly Green blog has good tutorials and ingredients to use, she recently used stinging nettles! Made a lovely colour. Sounds itchy but isnt!
This was a very inspiring post.
My week was good and today I got a heap of things done too. It is amazing how fast the week goes but each day I just do what I can and it all adds up.
Have a great weekend! With love, Annabel.xxxx
Annabel, you crack me up !!! I'll still be copying you I got the butterfly stickers years ago in a $2 shop and dug them out when I started making cards.
DeleteI'd love to see your soap recipe with goats milk - not that I'd know where to buy it. I can see you doing a soap making tuitorial on your blog.
I think I've just about achieved all my goals for this year with soap making being one of them
xoxo
I will find my recipe and re try it so I can give you the recipe and instructions. I just used powdered goats milk. It was very smooth and lovely. Now I need to start collecting things to use as moulds. I was worried at first about using caustic soda. It turned out easy although I did burn a mark on the lawn one time! xxx
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